Rather than trying to give your character a defense that doesn't require time to set up when startled awake at night, perhaps look into methods of gaining extra time in which to set up? The Alarm spell, for instance, can be quite useful, especially if camping in a dungeon.
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GMJoeOct 3 '13 at 7:07

I seem to recall our Witch had an armored skirt, which is separate from regular armor and has no spell penalty associated with it. I might be misremembering though.
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ZibbobzOct 3 '13 at 14:27

4 Answers
4

A mithral buckler (1,015 gp) has 0% ASF and grants +1 AC. It also has 0 Armor Check Penalty, so you take no penalties for using it if you’re non-proficient.

A mithral chain shirt (1,100 gp) has 10% ASF, and grants +4 AC. It also has the 0 ACP thing. Unfortunately, a 10% chance of failure in an emergency is a very bad idea, and I can’t find any great way of reducing it further. Pathfinderdoes have some feats for this, but they are unbelievably awful. Don’t take those.

There’s also, apparently, a few different Celestial armors, like this Celestial Chain Mail, which if you back-calculate its costs and bonuses and things, reduces Arcane Spell Failure by 15% for 1,200 gp. If you can then apply this to Studded Leather or Parade Armor, you get 0% ASF and 3 AC.

Celestial armor, mithral, bucklers, studded leather, and chain shirts are all part of Pathfinder core as well as on the PFSRD. Parade armor is from Adventurer’s Armory, apparently, but also appears in the PFSRD in the Armor Section.

I like the mithral buckler but he specifically mentioned "suprise nightime encounters" (I took to mean sleeping) did pathfinder get rid of penalties for sleeping in armor?
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Ben-JaminJan 7 '13 at 17:13

2

@Ben-Jamin: A good point. In 3.5, I'd use a restful crystal to handle that, but I'm not sure if Pathfinder has any solution. Ultimately, AC just isn't that important; a wizard can and should have other defenses.
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KRyanJan 7 '13 at 18:11

If you have access to ultimate equipment, than a decent non-magical armour for a caster without proficiency is Darkleaf Cloth Leather armour. It is a light armour with a AC bonus of 2, a max dex bonus of 8, an armour check penalty of 0, an arcane failure of 5 and is 7.5lbs. It costs 760gp. It gives the highest AC with low chance of spell failure.

If you don't want to take any risk of spell failure, than the Haramaki or Silken Ceremonial are ideal. Both are AC+1, no max dex bonus, armour check penalty or arcane failure rate. The Haramaki is 3gp while the Silken Ceremonial is 30gp(no actually difference between the two beside cost and flavour). In addition, if you have 5000g at hand, getting the Haramaki made of Adamantine, makes for the truely best caster friendly armour as it adds a DR1/- which lets you ignore one point of damage from every non energy attack.

Darkleaf cloth is a special form of flexible material made by weaving together leaves and thin strips of bark from darkwood trees, then treating the resulting fabric with special alchemical processes. The resulting material is tough as cured hide but much lighter, making it an excellent material from which to create armor. Spell failure chances for armors made from darkleaf cloth decrease by 10% (to a minimum of 5%), maximum Dexterity bonuses increase by 2, and armor check penalties decrease by 3 (to a minimum of 0).

An item made from darkleaf cloth weighs half as much as the same item made from leather, furs, or hides. Items not primarily constructed of leather, fur, or hide are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of darkleaf cloth. As such, padded armor, leather armor, studded leather armor, and hide armor can be made out of darkleaf cloth (although other types of armor made of leather or hide might be possible). Because darkleaf cloth remains flexible, it cannot be used to construct rigid items such as shields or metal armors. Armors fashioned from darkleaf cloth are always masterwork items; the masterwork cost is included in the listed prices.

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BESWOct 3 '13 at 6:08

2

Nice! Thanks for that, but wouldn't it reduce the spell failure to 5% not 0%?
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RobOct 3 '13 at 6:33

2

Yes, missed that. That's what I get for being still up at 2 in the morning. On related armour without any spell failure, the Haramaki and Silken Ceremonial both qualify, with a AC+1, no check penalties, and no max dex limit.
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GuestOct 3 '13 at 6:48

5% ASF makes the armor worse than no armor at all, IMO. The Haramaki and Silken Ceremonial are quite solid, though; this’d be the best answer if they were the ones touted as best.
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KRyanOct 3 '13 at 17:06

I'm not entirely sure if this is a house-item or one from a book somewhere, but I swore I had seen a Clothborn Full Plate item - the AC bonus of full plate, but with the encumbrance ( i.e. Max Dex, Spell Failure, weight, etc.) of a shirt ( not chain, just a shirt, as in, no armor at all) and could be decorated/embroidered as necessary. I think the formula was a Stone to Flesh spell on a suit of Dwarven Stone Plate or similar. Fairly expensive, but it is an extremely popular armor in any game I've played in.

There was no mention of making armour in 3.5e Stone to Flesh either. Remember that spell effects on magical items are sometimes a little different than their actual, base spell effects.
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Phill.ZittJan 7 '13 at 16:16

Fair enough; the spells a bit off limits to my character at the moment anyway, he's level 3 :)
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RobJan 7 '13 at 16:18

5

I'd certianly hope the spell effect on the magical item was different - my adventurers get bloody enough without wearing suits of meat.
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GMJoeJan 8 '13 at 5:15